(CNN)As Floridians cleared supermarkets of bottled water and emptied gas pumps, people in the northeastern Caribbean were making last minute-preparations before powerful Hurricane Irma hit their islands. Late Tuesday, the massive Category 5 storm was almost upon islands like Antigua and Barbuda with near-record 185 mph sustained winds. In its 11 p.m. ET advisory, the US National Hurricane Center said the eye of the hurricane was 50 miles from the two islands. The center of the storm was moving to the west-northwest at 15 mph. The hurricane center said the extremely dangerous core of Irma would hit the northern Leeward Islands -- which include Antigua and Barbuda, St. Kitts and Nevis, and Anguilla -- Tuesday night or Wednesday morning. It's too early to tell whether the storm will make landfall on the US mainland, but forecasts show it could turn toward Florida over the weekend. Until the early 1950s, tropical storms and hurricanes were tracked by year and the order in which they occurred during that year. Over time, it was learned that the use of short, easily remembered names in written as well as spoken communications is quicker and reduces confusion when two or more tropical storms occur at the same time. In the past, confusion and false rumors resulted when storm advisories broadcast from radio stations were mistaken for warnings concerning an entirely different storm located hundreds of miles away. In 1953, the United States began using female names for storms and, by 1978, both male and female names were used to identify Northern Pacific storms. This was then adopted in 1979 for storms in the Atlantic basin. NOAA’s National Hurricane Center does not control the naming of tropical storms. Instead, there is a strict procedure established by the World Meteorological Organization. For Atlantic hurricanes, there is a list of male and female names which are used on a six-year rotation. The only time that there is a change is if a storm is so deadly or costly that the future use of its name on a different storm would be inappropriate. In the event that more than twenty-one named tropical cyclones occur in a season, any additional storms will take names from the Greek alphabet.
Irma is most powerful Atlantic hurricane in recorded history Barbuda is first to be hit as storm points to Puerto Rico Category five hurricane has winds of up to 185mph Officials warn 'may God protect us all' from 'onslaught' Emergency declared as storm could hit Florida at weekend UK tourists evacuated from region on BA flight Richard Branson to ride out hurricane on Necker Island Gallery: Hurricane Irma storm, in pictures The most powerful Atlantic Ocean hurricane in recorded history has made landfall in the Caribbean islands, as British tourists are evacuated from the region amid warnings the storm will be "potentially catastrophic". The island of Barbuda was the first to bear the brunt of Hurricane Irma - a category five storm with winds of 185 mph - early on Wednesday, churning along a path pointing to Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Cuba before possibly hitting Florida over the weekend.
Nearly 90% of Barbuda destroyed, official says Prime Minister Gaston Browne said he “was one of the first on the ground” after Irma hit Barbuda and that he saw “a lot of destruction, upwards of 90%," according to Charles Fernandez, Antigua and Barbuda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, speaking to broadcaster ABS Television and Radio. Fernandez also said Antigua will be the “jumping off point” for relief efforts in the area, including the British Virgin Islands.
It's easy to look at whatever is happening now, and view it as being something so much worse than anything seen before and, of course, when it comes to weather events, we're encouraged to do that by the global warming theorists. This is true of a lot of things, however. Each generation sincerely believes that the subsequent generation, or the one after that, is the worst that society has ever experienced. Here's a list of hurricanes that touched the United States, listed by state. Although records may be sketchy from a hundred years or more ago, because hurricanes weren't named and recorded, and I don't know how accurately they could determine the category of the hurricane, as they are now; but still, it might be interesting. Maine has only had three, so I'm not concerned. Plus, I'm closer to the middle of the state than the coast.
It looks more and more like hurricane Jose might end up making landfall around New York. All they have are the models, which can of course change (sometimes a lot) but quite a few of the predictive models are saying that this could be where the next devastating storm hits.
They are still talking about hurricane Jose hitting our east coast, and projecting it to be around New York. An interesting thing online shows the government bill that already asks for aid for hurricane Irma and Jose victims. Since Jose has not yet even made landfall or done any damage anywhere, it would seem that they do expect it to impact the east coast and do enough damage that it needs hurricane aid.
It is not about the U.S. territories, but individuals that were in zones outside of U.S. territories impacted by Irma and Jose.
I realize that, @Harry Havens ; but so far as I know, Jose has not affected anyone anywhere. If someone is on a trip to Europe (for example) and has to come back to the US because of the hurricane, then they are eligible for this aid. The aid for people who had to return home because of Irma, I can understand (why wasn't Harvey part of this ?) but I can't see why they would include a storm that hasn't made landfall anywhere unless they are pretty sure it was going to do that. This is the point of my post.
You never know which way a hurricane will go, so might as well get a jump on the aid. If it dies out, the aid can go towards Irma or even Harvey.
People that did not evacuate for whatever reason, due to Irma, did evacuate due to expectations of Jose.